


Green II

by especiallythezefronposter



Series: Equals [10]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Army, Alternate Universe - Bank Robbers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 19:25:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1829485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about how Loki and Thor go from being anonymus faces in the crowd to bank robbers, to prisoners, to soldiers, to generals, to gods. A story about how they do all of this together but it still isn't enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green II

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: I know nothing about army ranks. In this story, general in the highest rank and lieutenant is right below that.  
> Secondly, I feel like I owe you a little explaination before you start reading. I promise I'll keep it short.  
> This story is set several decades after the last piece I wrote for this series. Thor and Loki have erased their minds and started over, as they talked about in the previous fic. That is where this story starts. Maybe one day I'll write what happened inbetween, but that day is not anywhere in the near future.  
> This story can be read as a stand alone, I think. Enjoy!

Loki wakes up with the overwhelming feeling that everything is alright. 

He knows that the memories in his mind are not real, but he also knows that he took out the veritable ones and replaced them with these himself, so he doesn't worry. Instead he slowly gets up and looks around. He's in his room - lit only by the streetlight shining through the window - in the apartment he shares with Thor, who is sleeping in his own room at the other end of the hallway. Outside the brick walls lies Chicago, still cloaked in darkness. Loki walks towards the window and feels safe, because he knows with a certainty he can't explain that none of these people know him, no one in this world knows him except for the man he shares this place with.

Later he goes to the kitchen and prepares breakfast for Thor and him, then brings it to Thor's room and eats with him on his bed. It feels familiar, like they've been doing this every Sunday since they moved in here, but Loki knows well enough that it's the first time.

-

They have their first kiss somewhere in Dallas. 

It's raining softly and they're in the garden of the house they're living in for now. It's not theirs but the inhabitants are on a holiday so they won't know. It's warm and dusk has only just set in, so that the letters in the book Loki is reading are starting to fade away. The sounds of the radio in the kitchen louden when Thor opens the door and comes walking onto the porch, pulling Loki from his seat on the windowsill and towards the lengthening grass. They are both barefoot and it's good, because then Loki can curl his toes into the earth before Thor pulls him in and they start dancing to a song he remembers from another life.

It's then that he thinks of how easy it has been to play house with Thor for these last few days, how their fights never last and they easily fall into an effortless routine that Loki could keep up for as long as he may live. Then Thor is suddenly so very close and Loki can count his eyelashes and the freckles dotting his nose and cheeks and the fading scars at the corner of his mouth and it seems as good a time as any to lean in and experimentally press his lips to Thor’s, just for a second -

Thor kisses back and then the second is over but their lips are still touching and it's okay, it's good. Loki's hands reach for Thor's hair as Thor pulls him closer and the kiss deepens.

They pull away only when they want to, when the shivering deep in Loki's chest is long gone and the lines of worry engraved in Thor's forehead have evened out. Raindrops are rolling down his cheeks like tears, but he is smiling and Loki smiles back, whispering something that makes Thor laugh in the increasing darkness.

-

Their last kiss before they go to prison is all kinds of wrong. 

The last of six gunshots is still ringing in Loki's ears and the blood hasn't yet stopped seeping out of the holes in the bodies at his feet when Thor pulls him in. He's holding his gun in the hand that clutches Loki's shoulder and Loki can taste the blood that is splattered across his lips. Yet he kisses back and enjoys it for as long as it lasts, because he can hear sirens in the distance and he knows they aren't going to flee this time, they never said it out loud but this kiss is words enough.

-

He sees Thor at Thor's trial and then at his own. After that they are sent to prisons in different states, because Loki shot two people at the robbery in Denver and Thor killed a man in Dallas. He is glad that they separate like this and not with either of them dying miserably in a prison cell while the other can only watch. They were together for as long as it was good and now that everything is turning sour so fast, the world is merciful enough to tear them away from each other. 

-

The war breaks out two years later. Loki hears snippets about what's happening from new inmates, but there are a lot of names he doesn't know and most of the stories are half made-up anyway.

Then the US army needs more recruits and starts fishing for them in its prisons. Loki behaves well and knows how to handle a gun and before he has the time to worry he's on a train to Houston.

He isn't surprised when Thor steps onto the train when it stops in Dallas.

-

The war is almost a relief to Loki. He feels at home in the chaos of battle as much as he does in a bank with a gun pointed at the owner and he's good, too, takes bullets and survives explosions that few others walk away from alive. It earns him more medals than he can pin to his uniform and a title of 'General' to match Thor's.

That's enough to keep him out of actual battles, but it also introduces him to a whole new level of chaos. Politics is more fascinating from up close. He quickly learns that as many people die in conference rooms as they do in battle, but the killing is not as direct, more like a poison than a gun. It's no matter. Loki has always been better at handling poisons than firearms, he thinks, vaguely remembering some feast from another life.

-

Sometimes he thinks Thor and him should get married. Everyone on the base knows they're together, but they would whisper about it more quietly if Loki wore the proof that he belonged to their most respected general around his finger.

Yet he can't get himself to ask Thor, because Thor never told him me loved him, not even once. He calls him _brother_ as easily as he calls others _friend_ and Loki doesn't know what that means. Maybe Thor just thinks that they are simply friends that fuck whenever there's time for it, but then why does he glare at anyone who comes near Loki? Why does his hands look like itching fists every time Loki is standing too close to another man?

Still, Loki keeps his mouth shut and tries to enjoy whatever piece of Thor he gets, even if it's not as soft as what he got before.

-

Loki is talking to a young lieutenant in a corner of the room. It's Christmas eve and everyone is wearing tuxedos instead of their usual uniforms, carrying a glass of champagne instead of a gun. 

He knows he's standing too close to the lieutenant and he knows he's smiling at more of his jokes than strictly necessary, but it's all worth it, because he can feel Thor's eyes on him. He has been watching them all night with a glare that gradually went from irritated to something nearing furious and every time Loki glances over the lieutenant’s shoulder to look at Thor, a warmth unlike the alcohol's spreads through his body.

'I'm afraid my presence is required elsewhere,' he tells the lieutenant when he has finished his story. He leans in to whisper something in his ear, just because he knows Thor might just break his champagne glass from seeing that. Then he walks towards the exit of the room, smirking because he knows Thor is right behind him.

It's a game they've been playing for a while now and Loki wonders what he's trying to win.

-

Two days later they are standing in the deserted laundromat on the base, their angry words drowned out by the rumbling of the washing machines.

'Am I not enough, Loki? Do you need so much attention that you have to flirt with anyone that has a proper title?' Thor is hissing. He is fuming, but Loki can see the hurt in his eyes.

Loki keeps his face blank, knowing how much Thor hates that. When he speaks his voice is even and controlled. 'Only the men, and never the kind ones... It's not like you never do it.'

'That's different, Loki. You know it is.' His voice is harsh and the pain in his features is being burned away by anger fast. 

Loki narrows his eyes, stepping closer. 'How is it different, _brother_? Tell me. I'd love to hear about how you never do anything wrong.' It sounds more bitter than he expected, but still less bitter than how it actually feels.

Thor grabs Loki's arm and it's surprisingly tender compared to his words. 'I don't ignore you for days on end and let you run after me like a desperate child. I don't treat you like you're nothing. I care about you and I respect you and no matter what you do to me, I love you.' He says those last words like they're bad, like they're supposed to sting the way everything else he said stung.

A silence falls and Loki thinks of Atlas, wonders if he could carry those three words that are hanging in the air between them as easily as he carries the sky. 'Oh, so you do?', Loki whispers at last, feeling something tug at his stomach. It takes him a moment to realize it's guilt.

'Of course I -' Thor looks betrayed. 'Was that what this was all about? You didn't think I loved you?' His voice sounds hollow.

Loki doesn't want to say yes, so he kisses Thor instead.

\- 

That night, when they're lying in Thor's bed, almost asleep, Loki whispers to Thor, 'I love you.'

Thor's answer is barely audible, but Loki still hears it and he thinks he'll never forget. 'I love you, too.'

-

The hospital wing is filled to its limit, but Thor still gets his own room. The hallway it's located in is guarded by two soldiers, but neither of them is foolish enough to tell Loki he can't get in at six AM.

He opens the door silently and sits down beside Thor's bed, grabbing his hand with both of his and being more careful than he usually is, even with Thor.

He focuses on Thor's chest, calmly moving in the dark. 'This is ridiculous,' he whispers. 'The most powerful man I know, slain by an accident. I can't even punish the fools that were stupid enough to take such sensitive bombs near the boiler room. They're already dead.' 

Thor's eyelids flutter and he smiles when he sees Loki. 'I always liked the way you say 'fool'. It makes you sound... Angry.' He laughs, though it sounds like a cough. 'Honest.'

Loki rolls his eyes, kissing Thor's knuckles. 'I wanted you to wake up, not to insult me with the first words you speak.'

'It's not an insult. I like you.' Thor's thumb is brushing Loki's palm and Loki curses himself for how it makes him feel. His chest is warm as if he's a teenager talking to their crush. _I like you_ shouldn't mean that much to him, either.

'You're not very good at showing people you like them,' he says, smiling slightly.

Thor smiles with him before turning serious. 'Why didn't you come earlier?'

'I did come. I was with your in surgery. Then you and I both had to sleep.'

'What did they do to me?'

'Basically cut out your heart. They wanted me there because they thought I'd know how far they could go with you. No one has ever seen a body as resistant as yours. There were pieces of shrapnel stuck in your heart but it started to heal as soon as I allowed them to take them out. You should've died from being so near the explosion. And if that hadn't killed you that shrapnel should have.'

Thor squeezes his hand. 'I didn't die.'

Loki somehow only relaxes then, when he fully realizes that Thor is safe, that he isn't alone in this world. 'Good. I wouldn't have let you.'

There was a silence.

'Do you know anything about Norse mythology?', Thor asks then, voice softer than before. 

'It's sounds like you are about to ask me if we _are_ our namesakes,' Loki says, a hint of warning in his voice. Thor had tried to bring it up before, half-drunk and joking, but he refused to let it go.

'I wasn't going to ask. I was simply going to state it. You survived being hit by lightning without sustaining any damage and my heart has been literally shredded to pieces. We are army generals that were plucked out of some prison. Any other prisoner is looked down upon. They can't even dream to make it to the higher ranks, whilst we have an open relationship and get more respect than anyone that can keep their love lives away from the front. If we're not gods we're ghosts. If we're not gods we died and no one knows what to do with us so they treat us like we're better than them.'

'There's no difference. If you are right and we are Thunderer and Trickster, there's supposed to be a better place for us to be than earth. That we are here means that nobody is missing us.'

Thor shrugs, then winces. 'That doesn't mean we aren't the rightful kings of Asgard.'

Loki has read about the two gods that had come to earth almost a century ago and had stayed to destroy and rebuild it multiple times. He wondered if Thor realized how wrong he was when he said 'we'. _Thor_ had been loved, a king not only in Asgard but in Midgard, too, whilist the one named Loki had been nothing but a monster, even when he started using his skills for good.

'And how are you planning to return to your beloved kingdom?' Loki's voice is mocking, but he's curious, too.

Thor grins darkly. 'The one leading the enemy army... There are theories about them being alien, right? They could help us.'

Loki felt a smile stretch across his own features. 'Are you willing to sell out the earth for a ticket to a place that might not care about you? I'm impressed. I never thought you'd be rotten enough to propose something like that, honestly, though it makes sense. It were people on this planet that took your precious scientist from you and you will make them face the wrath of a god.'

He can see the memory of a woman dying in his arms flicker in Thor's eyes, but his grin doesn't quite fade and he asks, 'Don't you want to go home? Don't you want to get away from here?'

Loki nods, but doesn't tell him that he'll go wherever Thor's smile is widest.

-

Earth falls silently, with every pair of eyes focused on TV screens showing two men, so different from each other but still looking the same in their dark green army coats. They hand over a peace treaty to the ambassador of the enemy army, nobody but them knowing that it's not securing earth's peace, only Thor and Loki's, only Asgards. Later the humans are forced to bend their knees for creatures they don't know, but by then the two men that are responsible for their downfall have become gods, back on Asgardian soil.

They are still dressed in their army coats, but Loki's body is surging with magic and he changes their clothes to something that could pass as formal Asgardian attire with a wave of his hand. He keeps the color, though. He likes the way Thor looks in green.

They are greeted by Heimdall and then by Frigga, Thor's mother. She embraces them both, tears streaming down her face as she tells them how glad she is that they have finally returned home.

Loki looks beside him, and there are tears in Thor's eyes, too.

-

Their crowns are identical, silver like their armor, embedded with emeralds that have the same color as their cloaks and the clothes underneath. Asgard welcomes them back with open arms and celebrates for years after their coronation.

They rule peacefully for decades, never making a decision without consulting the other. Thor even convinces Loki to adopt a child and raise it as their heir. They call her Hel and Loki will never forget holding her in his arms, Thor's strong arm pulling him close while he uses his other to support their daughter. She grows up to be as loving and as kind as Loki's first daughter had been and she teaches him to laugh genuinely, to trust, to love without a taste of bitterness.

He thinks that maybe finally Thor and him can settle, break their cycle of forgetting, destroying, rebuilding. Forgetting again...

-

Odin had been Asleep since their return, but after all these centuries, he starts to awake. The night that Frigga comes bearing the news, Loki puts his daughter to sleep, telling her he loves her, that she will one day rule over Niflheim, Helheim and Asgard and that she shouldn't let Odin stop her if she wants to move forward. She is above Odin.

Then he pours Thor and himself a glass of wine, adding a poison he brewed himself. It is deadly even for the immortal gods. 

Ironically, the liquid is bright green, but with a nod he makes Thor see it as red.

He raises his glass after handing the other to Thor. 'Equals at last,' he says before he drinks.

Thor is smiling slightly, his face solemn. 'Equals at last,' he echoes, as if he's making a joke. It makes Loki wonder if maybe he knows what he's doing when he brings the glass to him lips and keeps drinking until it's empty.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is it. You just finished reading the last fic in this series. Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
